Author's Note: About children who make small, insignificant moments sparkle.

Chapter 1: The Child We Loved

You guys will be okay
Anne of Green Gable's Question
Happiness is just playing
A miracle that might actually happen
Children's Special Mission feat.
princeling
Tom Sawyer, Huck, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Children's Liberation Army
My beloved Peanuts friends
The perfect age to enjoy life feat.
Pager

Chapter 2: Your words, so small, so lonely, and so bright

The magic of bandages
Just fly freely
Imagination that saves us
If you ask how love changes
Everyone becomes an adult when the pearl in their heart breaks.
The only way to keep a friendship
Because just eating and growing isn't everything
A new story written every day

Chapter 3_ Shiny but shabby, funny but sad

Conditions for mistakes to become heartwarming stories
There's always a reason for a child's bravado.
The best way to deal with the unknown life
You don't have to know
A mother's request to a monster
Who will comfort me when I am lonely?
We are all the final winners of the 300 million to 1 competition.
Is it okay to hate adults?

Chapter 4: Children Know Everything

Even children know
Knock knock, how are you?
About Heidi's attitude towards grief
The lie that it's all for you
What a Child's Heart Can Save
So that good kids can continue to be good
My eternal romanticism for someone on my side
The real adults children want

Chapter 5: Living One More Day with You

We never sink
You will grow up and finally become you.
Butterfly Hug
The sadness of jet lag
It's never your fault
I will protect you
Everyone deserves a standing ovation at least once.
I believe in you who believes in me

A sparkling repository of 'Children's Words'
Books and movies we looked into together

“Children bring me happiness that I have not yet discovered.
“He was rescued like an alchemist.”

Creative like Anne of Green Gables, cheeky like Tom Sawyer, and affectionate like Heidi.
Children's words as profound as the Little Prince and as colorful and lovely as the Peanuts friends.

Essayist Park Ae-hee, author of 『Life is Always a Little Bit Off-Cut』 and 『The Night I Asked My Mom How She Was』, and whose touching reviews from readers include, “A book that feels like a strong ally” and “A book that is like a comforting gift bomb,” has published her new book after two years.
The author, who has carefully and delicately examined and comforted the hearts of adults crouching in pain and anxiety, has now delved deep into the world of children.


The author was often amazed as the child who was a baby grew into a child and began to have a 'conversation' with him.
The child, like an alchemist, was able to find the happiness in everyday life that adults had not yet discovered.
Every time, small, insignificant moments sparkled.
After realizing that 'children are the first beings to discover happiness', I began to take children into my eyes and heart.
I overheard children chatting, and even stole glances at their gestures and expressions while walking down the street.
Whenever I found a movie with a child as the main character, I made time to watch it, and I searched for and read picture books with the mindset of going on a treasure hunt.
After that, I became an ardent fan and cheerleader for children, and I treasured the words of children who were creative like Anne of Green Gables, cheeky like Tom Sawyer, affectionate like Heidi, profound like the Little Prince, and colorfully lovable like the Peanuts friends.
Then, somehow, I feel like I'll be happier than before.
Because I feel like I can become a better adult.

In "Children's Words," you can meet all kinds of little beings, each with their own unique colors and stories, from the children we encounter in our daily lives to the children in beloved literary works and children appearing on TV and in movies.
Just as the author's heart brightened as the lights on a Christmas tree came on as she stored the sparkling words of children one by one in her heart's warehouse, I hope that the readers of this book will also be a little happier today than yesterday through the 'magic' of the little beings that make life shine as told by author Park Ae-hee.


“When you encounter the pure and warm heart of a child,
“I feel a desire to become a good person.”

The magic of clear and bright beings that always lead us to good places

The child who had gone out to play called me urgently.
“Mom, there’s a kitten here.
It looks like it was abandoned because it looks clean.
“Can you please bring me some feed?”
_From 'You'll be okay'

The author went out carrying a can of unsalted salmon he had at home.
The neighborhood kids are gathered together.
Some children call home and ask if they can have a cat, while others brag about how the cat rubbed its face on the back of their hand.
The author smiles secretly at the sight of children exclaiming how cute the cat is.


Children readily open their hearts to beings smaller and weaker than themselves.
The target does not distinguish between living and inanimate objects. For example, if you put a teddy bear next to a puppy doll so that it doesn't get lonely, you may not be able to use a new pencil for years because you are afraid that the character you like will disappear if you put it in a pencil sharpener.
As she watches children carefully lift snails from the sidewalk blocks and move them to the flower bed for fear that they will dry out and die, writer Park Ae-hee quietly asks herself a question.
Am I the kind of person who doesn't pass by a flyer someone desperately put up, or the kind of person who gives an umbrella to a dog shivering alone in the rain and hugs it?

Just as the author confesses that seeing children protecting each other with clear and warm affection regardless of who they are makes him want to be a better person, the small and delicate beings in this book, "Children's Words," convey an unexpectedly strong and solid strength, leading us to become better people.
It readily gives you valuable time to learn life from scratch.

“A child who is weak yet strong.
Do they know?
“That they sometimes teach adults well.”
_From 'We are all the final winners of the 300 million to 1 competition'

An 'adult' who has become an adult by chance
Words of encouragement and comfort I've been wanting to hear for a very long time.

The story of children who fall and break, but never stop growing again.

They say that in every adult's heart lives a child who has not yet grown up.
If you could go back in time and meet your younger self, as if you had time-slipped through a fantasy fairy tale, what would you want to tell him?
Don't you want to tell me that it's okay, that everything will be okay, as I cry, laugh, get disappointed, and constantly grow?

There are many children appearing in 『Children's Words』.
Children who are true to their own feelings, children who are not discouraged by things like getting a test question wrong and run outside to play, children who laugh more than 500 times a day, children who make lively gestures to become someone's shining joy, children who muster up the courage to be happy and joyful again, children who do not give up on expanding their world with their own strength.
As we listen to the stories of children who fall, break, cry, get up, and grow again, we too will come face to face with the little child within us that we have neglected for a long time.
And now that child may begin to grow again with strong, loving children.
I hope that readers of this book will also find such a time, becoming adults who believe in the precious moments that shine somewhere even amidst life's trials.